August 7, 2014 – Segment 1

Marc talks about what happened on this day in history, including the day President George Washington invoked the Militia Acts of 1792 to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania, the day in 1960 Black and white students staged kneel-in demonstrations in Atlanta churches, and the day Simón Bolívar triumphed over Spain in the Battle of Boyacá.

EVENTS

1461 – The Ming Dynasty Chinese military general Cao Qin stages a coup against the Tianshun Emperor.

1679 – The brigantine Le Griffon, commissioned by René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, is towed to the south-eastern end of the Niagara River, to become the first ship to sail the upper Great Lakes of North America.

1782 – George Washington orders the creation of the Badge of Military Merit to honor soldiers wounded in battle. It is later renamed to the more poetic Purple Heart.

1789 – The United States Department of War is established.

1791 – American troops destroy the Miami town of Kenapacomaqua near the site of present-day Logansport, Indiana in the Northwest Indian War.

1794 – U.S. President George Washington invokes the Militia Acts of 1792 to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania.

1819 – Simón Bolívar triumphs over Spain in the Battle of Boyacá.

1894 – Eugene Debs and three other trade unionists arrested after Pullman Strike

1919 – Actors Equity is recognized by producers after stagehands honor their picket lines, shutting down almost every professional stage production in the country. Before unionizing, it was common practice for actors to pay for their own costumes, rehearse long hours without pay, and be fired without notice

1964 – Vietnam War: the U.S. Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution giving U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson broad war powers to deal with North Vietnamese attacks on American forces.

1965 – The infamous first Reyes party between Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters and motorcycle gang the Hells Angels takes place at Kesey’s estate in La Honda, California introducing psychedelics to the gang world and forever linking the hippie movement to the Hell’s Angels.

1966 – Race riots occur in Lansing, Michigan.

1970 – California judge Harold Haley is taken hostage in his courtroom and killed during an effort to free George Jackson from police custody.

1970 – Angela Davis who was implicated in a shootout during an attempted escape in a San Rafael, California, courthouse, went into hiding to avoid arrest. Davis was acquitted of all charges on June 4, 1972.

1978 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter declares a federal emergency at Love Canal due to toxic waste that had been negligently disposed of.

1987 – Lynne Cox becomes first person to swim from the United States to the Soviet Union, crossing from Little Diomede Island in Alaska to Big Diomede in the Soviet Union

1998 – The United States embassy bombings in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya kill approximately 212 people.

1963 – Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, American son of John F. Kennedy (d. 1963)

1966 – Kristin Hersh, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

1966 – Jimmy Wales, American businessman, co-founded Wikipedia

1975 – Charlize Theron, South African-American actress and producer

DEATHS

1970 – Jonathan P. Jackson, American bodyguard (b. 1953) Jonathan Peter Jackson (May 1953 – August 7, 1970) is primarily known for initiating an attempt to negotiate the freedom of the Soledad Brothers (including his older brother George) through the kidnapping of Superior Court judge Harold Haley from the Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael, California, an incident in which he was one of four people killed.

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